Striking at the sanctity of public pensions in California, a federal judge ruled Wednesday that U.S. bankruptcy law allows the city of Stockton to treat pension fund obligations like other debts, meaning the city could trim benefits. Stockton argued that it must make its pension contributions for public employees before its creditors are paid the

Legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown will prohibit California prisons from forcing women to be sterilized for birth control. The Democratic governor announced Thursday that he signed SB1135 by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, a Santa Barbara Democrat. It takes effect Jan. 1… The Associated Press in the Merced Sun Star

WEST SACRAMENTO – At its Annual Convention this week, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) elected Chuck Alexander as its new State President, replacing Mike Jimenez, who is retiring at the end of this year. “I’m honored to have the confidence of the membership, and look forward to representing the hardworking men and women

Starting next month, California will begin implementing one of the nation’s toughest protocols for access to state prisons in an attempt to reduce the flow of illegal drugs to inmates. Most of the procedures outlined Wednesday by state corrections officials — including airport-style hand swabs and drug-sniffing dogs — will apply to visitors and staff.

Breaking three consecutive years of decline, the number of people in state and federal prisons climbed slightly in 2013, according to a report released Tuesday, a sign that deeper changes in sentencing practices will be necessary if the country’s enormous prison population is to be significantly reduced. The report by the Justice Department put the

Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. was joined by Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today to present the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor to 14 law enforcement officials who went above and beyond the call of duty. This year’s recipients of California’s highest public safety award included 4 individuals from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s

The Santa Clara County Correctional Peace Officers’ Association president is speaking out after he said a corrections officer was targeted in an attack that sent the deputy to the hospital. Lance Scimeca, who presides over the 682 correctional officers who work at the Santa Clara County jail, said the deputy on Friday was knocked unconscious

Health care costs at California county jails have increased significantly since the state implemented a prison realignment plan that spurred an influx of county-level inmates, according to an analysis of county-level data by the Sacramento Bee (Branan, Sacramento Bee, 9/8). Background on Realignment – In 2006, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson ruled that federal oversight

The mother and father of a mentally ill California prison inmate, who died after being pepper-sprayed in his cell, sued the state correctional system on Thursday, charging that guards failed to help him and tried to cover up the circumstances of his death. The U.S. District Court lawsuit, filed in Sacramento by the parents of

Four months after a federal judge in Sacramento declared that conditions for mentally ill inmates in the state’s prisons were “horrific,” California corrections officials unveiled sweeping new policies that will house them in specially designed units, provide greater time out of their cells and offer vastly increased treatment for the ill prisoners. The new policies,